Research institute

A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural science research, there are also many research institutes in the social sciences as well, especially for sociological and historical research purposes.

Famous research institutes

In the early medieval period, several astronomical observatories were built in the Islamic world. The first of these was the 9th-century Baghdad observatory built during the time of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, though the most famous were the 13th-century Maragheh observatory, 15th-century Ulugh Beg Observatory.

The earliest research institute in Europe was Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg complex on the island of Hven, a 16th-century astronomical laboratory set up to make highly accurate measurements of the stars. In the United States there are numerous notable research institutes including Bell Labs, The Scripps Research Institute,Beckman Institute, and SRI International. Hughes Aircraft used a research institute structure for its organizational model.

Public Religion Research Institute

The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education at the intersection of religion, values and public life. Founded in 2009 by Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox, PRRI research serves as a resource for journalists, opinion leaders, scholars, clergy and members of the general public who wish to gain a better understanding of how Americans’ religious and moral values shape public opinion on a broad array of political, social and economic issues. The PRRI research team conducts both public opinion poll and qualitative research. As a research organization, PRRI does not take positions on, nor does it advocate for, particular policies.

PRRI is a supporting organization of the Transparency Initiative at the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), and a member of the National Council on Public Polls. PRRI also has ongoing research partnerships with the Brookings Institution, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and Religion News Service. PRRI datasets are publicly available and are archived at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut and the Association of Religion Data Archives.